


Prelude to a Masque

by camwyncwru



Category: The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 04:54:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1292152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camwyncwru/pseuds/camwyncwru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For five hundred years there has been no challenge to the greatness of the city of Yhtill. But lost Carcosa casts a long shadow, though the Queen and King have yet to sense that shadow's fall...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prelude to a Masque

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Longpig](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Longpig/gifts).



There has been no challenger to the might and glory of the city of Yhtill in five hundred years. They have conquered their greater enemies, laid waste to their lesser ones, and put the rest under their boots as vassal-states and payers of tribute. The twin suns that rise beyond the lake of Hali bear witness to this, and will until the end of history. There is no greater city, not Hastur, not Alar, not lost Carcosa; and when this night has fallen and the four moons rise, I will be its queen.

It was Camilla's husband Aldones who first brought me to their palace. I was nothing in the eyes of the people then, a child only; but Aldones was an old man and a wise one, and he saw what his wife did not, that the throne of Yhtill must have an heir, and that heir would not come of their bed. In any other city this would not have been so great a thing; but in Yhtill the line of descent passes through the women, rather than the men. The Queen's daughter is first heir, her sister second, her sister's daughter third. Camilla herself was wed seven years, and never once quickened. Another might have set her husband aside, or taken a lover, but Camilla would not hear of it- and anyway Camilla's mother bore Camilla only at great cost, and brought forth no other issue. So Aldones set himself the task of finding a suitable girl to take the throne before Camilla's strength could falter as the strength of her bloodline was faltering.

The royal blood of Yhtill is the blood of the Emperor-under-the-Stars, the Lord of Light, passed down in this city through his daughter the Bearer of Light. But the Emperor-under-the-Stars had other children, who founded other cities. Carcosa was one such city, once. When five hundred years ago the armies of Yhtill crossed the lake of Hali, they fell upon Carcosa as ravening wolves upon a lone traveler. Of their deeds no one was left alive to speak; only the moons above bore witness. The city's towers were cast down, its men and women put to the sword, its babes carried out to dwell in their conquerors' homes all unknowing. Aldones knew this, and searched his wife's city until he found the descendant of one such babe reft from Carcosa. The blood of the Emperor-under-the-Stars could not be hidden forever, and so I was taken to the Queen's palace, to be raised as her child and given the throne when she felt it her time to step down. This she will do tonight, when the great masque she has called is complete and I have chosen a man to sit beside me on Yhtill's throne as king.

She thinks I do not know.

She thinks she has done me kindness. And she has been kind, in her own way; she and Aldones both have been kind indeed to a foundling of no very great prospects, who could be of no use to them elsewise. But I have heard the song the moons sing. I know, I know, I _know_ what was done in Carcosa that night five hundred years gone. I have heard it in my bones, my blood; the betrayal of a sister's trust, a brother's unwariness, writ in letters of blood as tall as the towers of lost Carcosa. The moons bear witness to the crimes Yhtill committed, and the stars overhead turn black at the thought alone. They know what wrong befell my ancestors, and they have whispered it to me, a thousand times a night. I cannot forget, any more than they.

Betrayal can only be repaid with betrayal. And while in a lesser city I might take the throne as Queen and throw the gates open to our enemies, there is not enough blood in this city to wash the stain of Carcosa's betrayal out. Yhtill destroyed the city of my ancestors, and worse. Carcosa will not, cannot, rise again from the ruins; and so Yhtill will not either.

I am the last of the royal line of Carcosa. I bear the blood of the Emperor-under-the-Stars, not through the Bearer of Light but through the Lady of Shadows, who was wronged as my ancestors have been wronged. She vouchsafed a terrible secret to her children, that might only be used when there was no other hope left unto them or their people, and the moons have reminded me of that secret. When I am queen this night I will sing the song the moons have taught me, and bring that secret upon the people of Yhtill, and they will pay for all the wrongs they and their ancestors have ever done a thousand, thousand times over. 

I will accept no mere man as King when I am Queen. This night, when I stand before her who calls herself my mother, I will sing the song of lost Carcosa, and I will wear yellow.


End file.
